[Infographic] The Cost of Hiring a Digital Agency vs. an In-House Team

Hiring an in-house team for your digital marketing efforts might seem like the logical choice. But once you factor in the ongoing time and expense it takes to recruit and run a successful department, it’s easy to see why businesses turn to agencies to handle their marketing initiatives.

Hiring in-house could take months to find the right members capable of working harmoniously as one department responsible for campaign strategy, execution, and optimization. With an agency, there is one cost for one qualified team rather than multiple recruitment fees, salaries, onboarding and training costs, and expenses due to bad hires, etc. The list could go on for days.

41% of companies reported cost of a bad hire was more than $25,000. – CareerBuilder

Can your company afford this setback?

Consider the ongoing costs of an in-house team:

Office supplies, which may include laptops

Multiple monitors

Desks

Other digital equipment

Monthly online tool subscriptions

Ongoing training

Miscellaneous office costs, such as phone services and Internet access

Now look at agency costs:

Vetted hires. The people on your agency team are marketing pros who have already gone through the screening process, training period, and have the background and experience necessary to help your marketing efforts thrive.

Trend trackers. Digital marketing is a quick-moving industry and agencies are on the pulse of the next algorithm update, technology advancements, and influx of information that will propel your campaign’s success. This expertise and knowledge sharing is not a high priority for an in-house team.

Tools. When it comes to digital marketing, there’s a tool for everything; tools that crawl sites, reveal backlink opportunities, find social audiences, create more efficient reporting, and the list goes on and on. The monthly costs for these tools can quickly add up to hundreds, possibly thousands, of dollars per year, an expense already covered when hiring an agency.

This only scratches the surface of the benefits a digital agency provides in terms of cost, productivity, and quality.

Hiring an agency makes smart business sense. As with anything, choosing to hire an agency over an in-house team is a matter of preference and what’s best suited for your company.

Check out our latest infographic below highlighting the value of having a digital agency as part of your team and make sure to also view our agency vs. in-house video to see the information come to life when deciding which route you want to take for your company.